The Bar Down the Street
by Amused Bookworm
Summary: I have no idea what to say other then it is a Songfic to Tim McGraws Real Good Man, involves a certain Brooklyn newsie. I hope it is up to standards for all the Real Newsies fans that stumble past it. Throw me a review to let me know. Danke A.B.


A/N: Random as this may seem, I saw the song and built from there, I was actually listening to classical music writing this, but hey it all works. As my bio says I have no idea how to truly base this off another piece of work so I have use the wonderful creation by Disney Company not to mention the song by Tim McGraw. I don't own one character in this story, not the drunk (friend of the family), the bartender (guy from down the street), or even the main female character; she is based off of an actual person, who owns herself. I guess the filler words are mine. So, enjoy and review if you feel the urge. -A.B.

Title: The Bar Down the Street 

_/Girl you've never known no one like me…Up there in your high society…They might tell…you I'm no good…Girl they need to understand…Just who I am…I may be a real bad boy…But baby I'm a real good man…_

There was very little that she had not loved about the boy, make that man, when she had first met him. It was hard for her to think that he still would stand to her left side as they went to the door. This was not the first time, or the last time, she assumed, that there would be this man walking her out of harms way. That is were the whole story started, her being led out of one of the roughest bars in the not so nice piece of Brooklyn she stumbled in to after getting a little to huffy at one of her galas and walking out the door and down the street with out realizing where she was going.

_…I may drink too much and play too loud…Hang out with a rough and rowdy crowd…That don't mean I don't respect…My Mama or my Uncle Sam…Yes sir, yes ma'am…I may be a real bad boy…But baby I'm a real good man…_

The bar she happened in to was not so high class as she thought, mistaking the looks on the outside to reflect to the inside. She walked up to the bar and asked which way to the nearest police station, she had no intention of getting a carriage or trying to walk out of Brooklyn, and she was certainly not going to try to get one of the half drunk fools in the bar to walk her home. The bartender was very rude on that matter stating that if she wanted to get information she would have to by a drink, problem was 1) she did not have money and 2) she did not drink, that coming from a very embarrassing incident three years ago where a little to much wine caused some harsh words and brash actions to transpire and led her to lose her closest friends. She was about to leave that bar to try and find another to get directions, when one of said drunks made a very lewd remark and approached her with his breath smelling of puke and whiskey. This scared her to her core, she was a proper lady, raised by the best nannies and tutors that her parents could buy, and she was not use to such improper remarks in any setting that she encountered. Luckily, one man, then a boy, did not laugh at the outrage she showed but hurried to help a lady out of an awkward situation. He at that time had only seen a beautiful young lady with a dollar sign in her reach that he could take some of, that he was just as rowdy as the rest in that bar smelling of whiskey with the rest, but as they walked home she saw that this boy was respectful to all he met even when intoxicated, from the beggar women who he bowed to, to the many people who he seemed to have a respect with even some of the seemingly well established business man, though there were few of them it being after hours and quite dark.

_…I might have a reckless streak…At least a country-mile wild…If you're gonna run with me…It's gonna be a wild ride……When it comes to loving you…I've got velvet hands…I'll show you how a real bad boy…Can be a real good man…_

After that boy brought her home that first night she would no leave him alone. She would show up at his door or she should say the door of the bar where they first met, some days she would enter but not like the first night, no, she would not be wearing her gala gown with its skirt that would leave her an island unto herself or the twinkle of the beads that would leave someone blind for minutes after she passed. No she usually came in her gardening gown or simplest morning gown, those being the only two dresses she owned that looked like the ones that she saw adorning the forms of the not so nearly fortunate people as herself. She was soon accepted at the small bar as one of the few pieces of scenery, a good in all the bad, she was never bothered from the second night on, well not by the regulars, they knew that to mess with her would bring the soaking of their life from one of, if not the toughest, fighter in the whole of Brooklyn, and many assumed, New York. The ones that did not know this soon found out, but not before I was politely led out of the bar and to the step of my now well known, to him at least, front door. That was the relationship she had formed with this man, then boy, he was the protector, a wild form that was gentle with her and always thought of her first, that would talk some nights at the bar for hours on end about ever subject and at the first sign of unease lead her to a safe place, but then would go back and end that unease with a fist. Bad and good all in one form, nothing special to anyone else but a marvel to her that the sides would be so clear and easy to see.

_…I take all the good times I can get…I'm too young for growing up just yet…Ain't much I can promise you…'Cept to do the best I can…I'll be damned…I may be a real bad boy_

_But baby I'm a real good man…_

That had been five years ago when they had met so unceremoniously at this same spot, and now they were both adults, one still getting hit on and the other making sure she is safe and out of harms way. That would forever be their relationship it seemed, she the upper crust and him the newsie with an attitude that she had first met. But them both turning eighteen would change a lot she realized, she would have to be married soon, her parents had let her get away with not having a suitor for too long, or so they thought. And the man was now not a newsie but a man the worked a steady job to try and better his life. How could their feelings transfer to the new lives that they would have to take up? That was why she had come here tonight, that same bar, just to talk to him for the last time, as the two kids that never got thrown out of it. And the last time that she would be led out of the bar by the elbow, and hopefully the last time he would have to soak anyone for her.

_…I may be a real bad boy…Oh but baby I'm a real good man…Yes I am /_

As they approached her front step she slowed, "Spot, I love you, you know that right?"

"Yeah, who does not love me?" Spot smirked

"No, I mean it, I love you. But you knew that was what I meant didn't you?"

"Yeah, of course, did you think I was that dense? I just wanted us to part with you having no remorse for leaving. You knew that there was going to be an end, and I would rather part with a wonderful friendship, then an untried romance."

"Spot… I… you are one of the things in my life that have truly made me happy; you are a true protector of all of me. If that is how you want to leave this then I will respect that. But you will still have to remember, I love you, as a friend if that is how it must be, but love none the less."

"As a friend, I love you too, now go home, dear friend, sleep this away and store it as a dream. I will be watching, make sure he is worthy."

With that Spot walked away, a tear in his eye, and a whisper passing his lips, "I love you, too, my Ann. You are my good in the bad, and will be for far longer then I will be your knight in shining armor."

Artist: Tim McGraw

CD: Tim McGraw and the Dancehall Doctors

Title: Real Good Man


End file.
